Realm of the Mad God
Realm of the Mad God is a free Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (commonly abbreviated to MMORPG) Shooter created in collaboration between Wild Shadow Studios and Spry Fox. It is designed with an 8-bit pixelated art style and contains "perma-death" aspects (upon death a character is deleted). Its first public release in the form of a beta was available starting from January 2010, followed by the full official launch of the browser based game on 20th June 2011. The availability of the game was expanded upon on 20th February 2012 when it was released on the widely successful digital distribution platform; Steam. The game client is written using Adobe Flash software, allowing it to be available to play in-browser on the games official website. This allows the game to reach a wide potential audience since the majority of Internet users have Flash installed. This software also allows for the game to have a very small total file size, as well as strong server-side intergration. A downside to Flash however, is that the game is heavily limited performance-wise which limits what can be added to it. (This is mostly avoided since the game has a very low demanding visual style). Development The games first build was created as an entry to TIGsource's 2009 "Assemblee Competition". Founders of Wild Shadow Studios; Alex Carobus and Rob Shillingsburg '''created the original build under a very strict limit of resources as specified by the competition rules. The basis of the game as described by the creators themselves was to "shake things up by breaking as many MMO ‘rules’ as we could". The game did not win the competition, however the positive reaction from players pushed the developers to begin working on a full version without the resource restriction. Soon after the initial launch of the beta build in 2010, the game producing company Spry Fox joined along side the current development team in order to assist in creating the full release build. Since the game was to be released for free to the public, the developers added in optional micro-transactions, causing a controversy within the player-base. Despite this, the developers argued they were a positive addition to the game, Rob Shillingsburg saying the following in a 2010 interview with '''Rock Paper Shotgun; "We included optional micro-transactions because they seemed like the most convenient, customer-friendly way to pay for the game. Newbies can try the full game for free with no hassles; enthusiastic non-payers help enhance our community by playing as long as they want for free; while our biggest fans, those that passionately love the game, can spend as much as they want, helping us to grow the game over time. We are pleased with the results so far, and while we haven’t yet recouped the costs of working on the game full-time for 20 months with no salary, the game is now on a solid financial footing." As of 2016 the micro-transactions have remained in the game. Gameplay The primary gameplay is similar to the likes of the classic "bullet hell" shooter. The player controls their character using the WASD keys to move and the mouse to shoot projectiles at enemies, as the default control method. Upon starting a new character (presuming the tutorial has already been completed), the player is presented with a total of 14 different classes, Wizard, Priest, Archer, Rogue, Warrior, Knight, Paladin, Assassin, Necromancer, Huntress, Mystic, Trickster, Ninja, and Sorcerer, the latter being unlocked later on into the game. The player must select one class to play as, each having their own play style and advantages. Once a class has been selected the player will be spawned at the Nexus, a central hub where they will not be faced with any threat. In this area the player can trade items with other players on the server, as well as purchase items for in-game currency. This area can be accessed at any time by pressing the 'R' key by default. Located within the Nexus are separate instances, known as realms that the player can access. This is where the bulk of the game takes place. Upon entering a realm the player is immediately under threat. When first spawning in they will arrive at the lowlands and can begin to kill monsters. From doing so the player can earn experience and loot to progress their characters. Whilst in a realm the player can take damage from monsters and as a consequence be killed,resulting in the character being wiped along with all loot, and fame being awarded regarding what was achieved in the characters life-span.